Practice 1: Davidson flies

In an action-packed session that saw most drivers leave the track as they searched the limits of their machines, it seemed Ferrari were back in business as first Schumacher then team-mate Rubens Barrichello set the pace - an impressive two seconds quicker than last year's pole time.

As usual it was the teams' Friday men who were doing the brunt of the work and laying down the rubber before the big hitters emerged from the garage.

Toyota's Ricardo Zonta was the first driver to set a competitive time around the Nurburgring and held the top spot for the first 20 minutes before BAR's Friday man Davidson punched out the best time of the morning.

Schumacher obviously got agitated and felt it was time to lay some Ferrari rubber on the track. Unsurprisingly the German smashed Davidson's effort by over a second and continued to slash away at his own time for several laps.

The Ferrari driver looked like he was having a day's fun in the playground, but a trip off track at Turn 3 proved how far he was pushing to gain some extra tenths. It was team-mate Barrichello who found them, though, as he bettered Schumacher's time by just over a tenth of a second.


Not to be outdone, Schumacher was back on track knocking three tenths off his time to re-claim the top spot. But, with just two minutes of the session remaining, Davidson put in a quick one to let the Ferrari boys know that they aren't going to have it all their own way this weekend.


Jaguar's Mark Webber finished fourth ahead of the early pacesetter Zonta while McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was an impressive sixth after just four laps. Sauber's Felipe Massa was seventh edging out Ralf Schumacher (Williams) in eighth.

Renault's Fernando Alonso was ninth while BAR's Jenson Button could not match team-mate Davidson's time and had to settle for 10th spot.

Further back, Juan Pablo Montoya was 11th in the second Williams while David Coulthard was 13th after just five laps. Both he and Raikkonen spent most of the session waiting in the pits as work was carried out on the cars.